In the case of Olkiluoto 3, the initial report spoke of a ‘small’ fire which, in subsequent reports, was revealed to be serious enough to cause ‘extensive damage’ with ‘major concreting operations’ required to repair the damage.

And so we come to the US military’s nuclear submarine, the USS Houston. Early last week first reports stated that ‘a gallon of water that contained a small amount of radioactivity spilled out from a pipe onto a crew member of the Houston’. Five days later it was revealed that the Houston’s reactor had been leaking for two years.

On this occasion, it seems that the US military were fortunate and no major contamination took place. (Don’t think we’re taking the second reports at face value either – further worse news may yet dribble out, like water from the Houston’s reactor). But once again, this all serves to fuel the mistrust of the nuclear industry. We can’t trust the technology. We can’t trust the safety procedures. We can’t trust the news in the event of an accident.